Pre-trial Detention: Contours and Causes of Temporal and County Variation

• In Event: 3222 - Section on Crime, Law, and Deviance Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Courts and Policing

Abstract

Despite growing interest in bail and pretrial detention among both academic researchers and policymakers, systematic research on pretrial release remains limited. In this paper, we examine bail and pretrial release practices across 75 large US counties from 1990-2009 and look at the contextual correlates of bail regime severity. We find tremendous intra-county variation in bail practices, as well as a nationwide decline in the use of non-financial release and doubling of bail amounts during this period. This variation is not accounted for by differences in case composition across jurisdictions or over time. Patterns of bail practices are associated with political, socioeconomic, and demographic factors, however. Implications of these findings for future research on bail and pretrial detention are discussed.

Authors

• Katherine Hood, University of California-Berkeley

• Daniel J. Schneider, University of California-Berkeley